Adobe Think Tank – The role of people in the future of work

Our work­ing lives have changed dra­mat­i­cal­ly in just a few years. There’s the explo­sion of tech­nolo­gies such as col­lab­o­ra­tion tools, cloud com­put­ing and automa­tion, for a start. We com­pete in a glob­al mar­ket­place and are now just as like­ly to work under con­tracts than in tra­di­tion­al, full-time posi­tions.

Just as organ­i­sa­tions grap­ple with trans­for­ma­tion and dis­rup­tion of their busi­ness mod­els, sim­i­lar ques­tions loom for those with­in. How will we work in the decades to come? How can we best pre­pare those who are yet to enter the work­force?

The future of the indi­vid­ual work­er will be a sub­ject of debate by some of the most promi­nent and influ­en­tial organ­i­sa­tion­al and occu­pa­tion­al thinkers in the region when Adobe brings togeth­er an expert pan­el for the Future of Work Think Tank live-stream on Decem­ber 6 in Syd­ney .

Will employ­ees need to be high­ly spe­cialised and supreme­ly flex­i­ble in their career choic­es? Will they strive for cer­tain­ty with­in organ­i­sa­tion­al struc­tures or glide between projects and place­ments?

The expert pan­el will include politi­cian Shiao-Yin Kuik, pro­vid­ing her unique point of view as a nom­i­nat­ed mem­ber of par­lia­ment for Sin­ga­pore – arguably Asia Pacific’s liveli­est busi­ness hub. Kuik argues the respon­si­bil­i­ty for a com­pas­sion­ate cul­ture rests with busi­ness and gov­ern­ment lead­ers, who need to make work­force deci­sions with under­stand­ing and empa­thy.

Kuik is a co-founder of the Thought Col­lec­tive, an assem­bly of com­mu­ni­ty enter­pris­es designed to “build up Singapore’s social and emo­tion­al cap­i­tal”.
She has spent much of her career help­ing organ­i­sa­tions pre­pare for the future and all its pos­si­bil­i­ties, advis­ing pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor clients on cre­at­ing empath­ic and impact­ful solu­tions to work­force change and employ­ee man­age­ment.

While Kuik is an advo­cate for the individual’s place with­in an organ­i­sa­tion, what will be the organ­i­sa­tion­al struc­ture and how will it best func­tion?

Fel­low pan­el­list Abhi­jit Bhaduri is a media com­men­ta­tor and one of India’s lead­ing HR influ­encers. He’s a spe­cial­ist in organ­i­sa­tion­al design, how teams work and the essen­tial ele­ments for an effec­tive, healthy busi­ness.

For­mer­ly chief learn­ing offi­cer at glob­al IT giant Wipro, Bhaduri pro­vides insights into the impor­tance of upskilling employ­ees and how learn­ing can keep staff engaged in the business’s mis­sion. His expe­ri­ence in man­ag­ing more than 100,000 staff pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive on enabling team col­lab­o­ra­tion and sup­port­ing autonomous work.

Bhaduri is also a best-sell­ing author and pop­u­lar colum­nist for the Times of India. He will share his under­stand­ing of dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion while fore­cast­ing the skills need­ed to man­age organ­i­sa­tion­al cul­ture in the future.

Prepar­ing peo­ple to lead in this dig­i­tal era is what our third pan­el­list, Su-Yen Wong, has built her rep­u­ta­tion on as CEO of Singapore’s Human Cap­i­tal Lead­er­ship Insti­tute (SHCLI).

The SHCLI was cre­at­ed by prin­ci­pal gov­ern­ment, edu­ca­tion­al and busi­ness bod­ies to nur­ture the country’s best nat­ur­al resource; tal­ent. Wong leads the group in devel­op­ing exec­u­tives into lead­ers both with­in the Asian mar­ket and abroad.

Her more than 20 years’ expe­ri­ence in HR and busi­ness strat­e­gy has made Wong strong­ly believe that these gov­ern­ment and edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions must work with busi­ness to pre­pare and sup­port the work­force of tomor­row.

In our time of dig­i­tal dis­rup­tion, Wong con­sid­ers ongo­ing edu­ca­tion as an essen­tial part of work expe­ri­ence for senior exec­u­tives, mil­len­ni­als and every gen­er­a­tion to come.

Share in Adobe’s Future of Work Think Tank dis­cus­sion via the live stream on AdobeThinkTank.com from 2pm AEDT on 6 Decem­ber 2017. Join us for this pan­el dis­cus­sion on how the future of work will affect peo­ple, and how we can pre­pare for the best out­come today.